A blog about poetry, literature, and art, that occasionally engages other issues of importance and interest.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

God-With-Us

GOD-WITH-US

after Jean Valentine

What will I call youwhen you are gone?How will I know your name?Little star, reflectionon the Sea of Galilee,a lantern in the wood, half-hid,half-seen?reflecting on what can’t betouched, be known?And the sheen of milkacross the sky, the galaxy poured outlike me, true sky, false dawn,and a young woman’s nipple,star of milk, star of anursing child’s mouth, mychild, my lord, whoeveryou may be today, tonightwhich will not end, a cuppassed to me, from which I mayor may not drink, half-emptystar, still asleep by now?And your small body, Emmanuel,how small my heartto fit inside yours)lie there, pearled, asleep…How I want to believe.(a pearl, an irritant).

Note on "God-With-Us:" This was the last poem Reginald wrote. He wrote it while in the hospital, about two weeks before he died. It was read at his memorial service by his longtime friend Jocelyn Emerson. Robert Philen

19 comments:

Reginald, now your poems must catch up to you. Facing illness, I also speak anti-poetry: writing this in those circumstances confirm your powers as echo-maker. Your kindness will somehow be lost as one of your great talents. To some of us, you're never to be merely an idea. Rane

Marvelous! Tough and poignant, hard and soft at once, and it chimes with my own feelings about these things. Reminds me of a line from a recent book from Julian Barnes: "I don't believe in God, but I miss him."

"How I want to believe."-This line is, or is close to being,baptism by desire. Yet it is notnecessary to espouse a Belief toknow that Mr. Reginald Shepherdstrove to be a human of the highest order. You also.The two of you deepened and raised each other, reminding the rest of usthat however difficult one's transit becomes,loving life and livening loveshould guide that transit.

About Me

Reginald Shepherd is the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries (University of Iowa Press, 2004) and of Lyric Postmodernisms (Counterpath Press, 2008). He is the author of: Fata Morgana (2007), winner of the Silver Medal of the 2007 Florida Book Awards, Otherhood (2003), a finalist for the 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, Wrong (1999), Angel, Interrupted (1996), and Some Are Drowning (1994), winner of the 1993 Associated Writing Programs’ Award in Poetry (all University of Pittsburgh Press). Shepherd's work has appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry and two Pushcart Prize anthologies, as well as in such journals as American Poetry Review, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and The Yale Review. It has also been widely anthologized. He is also the author of Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry (Poets on Poetry Series, University of Michigan Press). Shepherd has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, the Florida Arts Council, and the Guggenheim Foundation, among other awards and honors.